For we walk by faith, not by sight

Do you know the legend of the Shoshone Indian youth's rite of Passage?

His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone.  

Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.  

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blows the grass and earth, and shakes the tree stump, but he sits stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man! 

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.

It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm. 

We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, Sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. 

Moral of the story:
Just because you can't see God,
Doesn't mean He is not there.
"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God

[...]Do you know who are the peacemakers Jesus is talking about?

They are not the kind of people who simply love peace and quiet and cannot bear rows, the kind who are naturally easy-going, but, deep down, just do not want to be disturbed or have any bother.

Neither are peacemakers those good people who, trusting in God, do not react when they are provoked or insulted. Peacemakers are those who love peace so much that they are not afraid to intervene in a conflict so as to bring peace to those who are at odds with one another.

Only those who possess peace in themselves can be bearers of peace.

We must be bearers of peace first of all in the way we behave moment by moment, living in harmony with God and doing his will. Peacemakers strive furthermore to forge bonds and build up relationships among people, reducing tension and dismantling the 'cold war' that they find in many different places, among families, in work-places, at school, on the sports field, between nations, etc. Even in your own home you may be aware, possibly always have been aware, that your father has not spoken to his brother ever since they once fell out. You know that your grandmother does not say a word to the person upstairs because of the noise she makes. You see the rivalry between your friends at work. Perhaps you yourself often quarrel with others at school: and with your peers, who play the same sport as you, you are not on the best of terms - you find yourself ruled by an overriding desire to be first, to beat everyone else, and it is not simply a wish to match their excellence. If you live in a community you will have noticed how many little, or not so little, disagreements can spring up and grow. Every day, television and radio bring home to you the fact that the world is like a huge hospital, and the nations are like large patients in urgent need of peacemakers to heal tense and intolerable relationships that threaten to cause war, if it has not already happened.

Peace is a particular feature, typical of Christian relationships, which believers seek to establish with the people they are in touch with regularly or those they see only occasionally: These relationships are based on sincere love, without falseness or deceit, without any trace of implicit violence or rivalry, competition or self-centredness. To work so as to establish these kinds of relationships in our world is in itself a revolutionary act. The way people normally relate to one another is entirely different and unfortunately hardly ever changes. Jesus knew how things were and this is why he asked his disciples always to take the first step, without expecting any initiative or response from the other person, without expecting anything mutual: "But I say this to you, love your enemies... and if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?" (Matt. 5:44-47).

Jesus came to bring peace. Everything he said and did revealed this. However, when this new kind of relationship is established among people, it frequently unmasks false social relationships, revealing the violence that is hidden there. Not everyone is happy when this truth comes out and so there is the danger, in extreme cases, that some people might react with hatred and violence towards those who dare to disturb the present ways of living and accepted structures.

'... they shall be called children of God'. To be given a name means becoming what the name says. Paul called God 'the God of peace' and he greeted Christians with the words ' May the God of peace be with you all'. Peacemakers show that they are part of God's family, they act as his children and bear witness to the fact that, as a document of the Roman Catholic Church says, 'Peace is the fruit of that right ordering of things which God has built into human society.'

How can you live this word of the gospel?

First of all by spreading love in the world. It is significant that Mother Teresa of Calcutta, an exceptional woman who did nothing but love throughout her life, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Then, try to take action, prudently, when you find the peace around you is broken. Often it is just a question of listening with love, and completely, to the two sides who are quarrelling, and a peaceful solution can be found.

You can build peace by never giving up in your efforts to re-build relationships that were spoilt by things that were really nothing at all.

An important means to de-fuse tense situations is the use of humour: A rabbinic text says, 'The kingdom of the future belongs to those who love a good joke, because they are peacemakers among people who quarrel.'

Maybe you can be a peacemaker by setting up, within any organisation or other body you belong to, special projects to promote a greater awareness of the need for peace.

Furthermore, so far as you are able, you could support the work of great and sincere peacemakers, such as the present Pope or others in your own country and in the world.

What matters is that you should not sit still and watch the few days of life you have passing by, without doing something for your neighbours, without preparing yourself properly for the life to come.

12 months ago today I collapsed at work and was diagnosed with the brain tumour! What a year it has been! Full of graces, full of gifts, full of signs of God’s love for me. But there are also temptations and sufferings, such as getting fixated with dates. At the beginning I was told the prognosis is on average 14 month which gives me another 8 weeks. That is a very limited way of looking at thing, because whether that is true or not does not depend on me or anybody, but on the plan God has for me. So in the meantime live fully in the present moment. Today’s motto then is to build peace in the present moment by loving my neighbour!

Let’s persevere in love

[...] " If Jesus was in me, if Jesus was in the other, if Jesus was all, we would, at that moment, perfect in unity.

But - I repeat - so that Jesus is in us we needed to love Jesus Forsaken

In all suffering, empty, failures and sorrows of life.

If Jesus was in me and in the other, whom we meet, we recognized each other,

Because it was in God in me  and God in the other me and God in everyone.

And only then we were brothers and sisters.

And the grace pushed us to live this ideal decisively and with

Perseverance precisely because the perfection of the of unity never became less"[...]

I came across this song which I like very much with the following explanation:

It's about being on the road, missing someone at home, but it was written in such a way, it connected with so many people, that it wasn't just about two people, it was about a connection with your higher power, lots of different things."

http://youtu.be/wUK2QmdUXas

For me it’s about being on a journey, longing to arrive at home, Paradise! But instead of waiting paradise is a house that we together can build here and live in over there! That is what love does!

Have a merciful love

I was reflecting on this letter written by Chiara Lubich and it brought me back to what is essential in my life: To love and be always in God. Everything that happens to me is an expression of his love for me! In the same way everything I do out of love for my neighbour in the present moment is an expression of his love for that neighbour.

To us, fervent young people who are not yet attached to the things of the earth!

To us, active young people whose task is to bring Heaven on earth and earth to Heaven! Earthly angels and heavenly people!

Look to the goal we will reach soon enough, alone with God!

Each one of us will find ourselves in front of Him, where we will realize how much we have gathered of incorruptible and eternal things.

Time is a flash of lightening and only a fleeting moment in our hands.

Root it in God and in passing by, carry out works for Heaven!

Let’s look around us. We are all brothers and sisters; no one is excluded!

Under each of our specific features, let us recognize Christ who needs to grow in us: the Crucified and forsaken Christ dwells under the miserable, human and sinful.

But have trust: He conquered the world!

Let us get to know one another as God knows us; let us not condemn one another and despair, but be Merciful towards one another and help each other.

Let us love one another! One day we will all find ourselves up there united for all Eternity, if down here we had the courage to love each other without excuses.

United for the same Ideal: universal brotherhood in one sole Father, God, who is in Heaven.

Let us get to work: may our love be truth and deeds!

«My dear children, let us love not only with words and with our lips, but in truth and in deed (1 Jn 3:18).»

Why are we afraid to tell everyone that we are just passing through down here and we will remain up there forever?

Why don’t we illuminate our blind neighbours, if we are and have the Light?

Let us love with the truth,

Let us love with deeds!

Children of the Most High, we have been born and bred in God’s mercy. We are like our only Father, «merciful living beings» and we carry out works of mercy.

There are so many neighbours who pass us by each day of our lives! In each one Christ, who wants to be born, grow, live and rise again, asks us for help, comfort, advice and admonishment, light, food, lodging, clothes and prayers….

Let us live the present moment and in the present do the work of mercy which God asks from us.

Only in this way do we journey towards Paradise.

“Nothing has value if it’s not done out of love”

I find these words so consoling, because they give value to the simplest act or gesture. As someone who wants to live the words of scripture, I have to believe that everybody that passes in the present moment is a gift for me. It may not be that obvious, but the reality is there. God has created each one of us as gift for each other. In the same way if I believe that he is love, he cannot but love me though all the circumstances in life. Everything then becomes an expression of God’s love for me. That means my response of loving him in my neighbour has immense value, because it is God himself who loves! Today’s letter of St Paul is a great meditation for me:

If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever.

It is a constant reminder of not what I do but how I do it. I give my life for noble cause without love, without loving my neighbour it has no value. St Paul is very strong and it is a good exam of conscience for me, because above all I have to love, the rest really doesn't matter! It is turning everything upside down.

Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

This is God who is love. A love that is universal, if includes everybody. All too often I find myself looking at others in categories: family – not family, focolare – not focolare, catholic – non catholic, Christian – non Christian, healthy – sick; and many more. God’s love is universal! If I want to love him my love has to be universal. 

Do good

How to do good? There are so many ways, and I was getting a bit lost until I came across this reflection: 

Kindness: wanting the good of others. It means ‘making ourselves one’ with them, stepping into their shoes, approaching them being completely empty of ourselves, of our own interests, our own ideas, of the many preconceptions that cloud our vision, to take on ourselves their burdens, their needs, their sufferings, and to share in their joys.

 

It means entering into the hearts of the people we meet in order to understand their mindset, their culture, their traditions, so as to make them, in a certain sense, our own, and really understand what they need and be able to discern those values God has planted in the heart of every person. In a word: kindness means to live for whoever is near us.

 

Tender-heartedness: welcoming others as they are, not as we would like them to be, with a different character, with our political views or our religious convictions, and without those faults and habits that annoy us so much. No, we need to expand our hearts and make them able to welcome everyone, with their differences, their shortcomings and troubles.

 

Forgiveness: always seeing other people as new. Even where there are the best and most peaceful relationships, in the family, at school, at work, there are inevitably moments of friction, differences of opinion, clashes. People sometimes reach the point of not speaking to each other, of avoiding one another, to say nothing of when real and true hatred towards someone who thinks differently roots itself in the heart. We have to make a strong and rigorously thorough commitment to try and see each person as though they were new, completely new, not remembering at all how they have hurt us, but covering everything with love, with a complete amnesty in our hearts, imitating God who forgives and forgets.

 

True peace and unity are attained when kindness, tender-heartedness and forgiveness are lived not only by people individually, but together, with one to another mutually.

 

And just as the embers of a fire have to be poked every now and then, so that they are not smothered by the ashes, so too from time to time it is necessary deliberately to revive the decision to love one another, to revive our relationships with everyone, so that they are not covered up by the ashes of indifference, apathy, selfishness.

 

These attitudes demand to be translated into life, into practical action.

 

Jesus showed us what love is when he healed the sick, when he fed the crowds, when he brought the dead back to life, when he washed the feet of his disciples. Actions, deeds: this is what it means to love.

 

I remember an African mother whose daughter, Rosangela, lost an eye after an aggressive young boy hurt her with a stick. He even continued to make fun of her afterwards. Neither of the boy’s parents said that they were sorry. The silence, the lack of communication with that family, made the mother feel bitter. ‘Don’t be upset,’ said Rosangela who had forgiven the boy, ‘I am lucky because I can see with my other eye!’

 

Rosangela’s mother told us: ‘One morning the boy’s mother asked me to go round to her house because she felt ill. My reaction was: “Look, now she is coming to me for help. With so many other neighbours she could have asked, she asks me, after all her boy has done to us!”

 

‘But right away I remembered that love has no limits. I ran to her house. She opened the door and fainted into my arms. I took her to the hospital and stayed with her until the doctors saw her. A week later she was discharged from the hospital and came to my house to thank me. I welcomed her with all my heart and I felt that I had finally managed to forgive her. Now we are in touch again. In fact, our relationship is totally new.’

 

Every day of ours, too, can be filled with real acts of service, humble and intelligent expressions of our love. We will then see brotherhood and peace grow around us.

Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

http://www.focolare.org.uk/word-of-life-current.html

While Jesus was teaching in the temple, the Scribes and Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught in the act of committing adultery. They said to Jesus, ‘In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ (Jn 8:5).

They wanted to set a trap for him. If Jesus had shown himself to be against the stoning, they could have accused him of going against the law. According to the law, the eye-witnesses had to begin stoning the one who had sinned, to be followed by the rest of the people. If, instead, Jesus had confirmed the death sentence, they would have made him contradict his own teaching about God’s mercy to sinners.

But Jesus, bending down and writing on the ground with his finger, showed how unruffled he was. He straightened up and said:

Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

When they heard this, the accusers went away one by one, beginning with the eldest. Jesus then turned to the woman and asked, ‘Where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again’ (see Jn 8:10-11).

Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

With these words, Jesus certainly doesn’t show himself as permissive in front of evil, such as adultery. His words: ‘Go your way, and from now on do not sin again’ clearly state God’s commandment.

Jesus wishes to unmask the hypocrisy of those who set themselves up as judges of a sister who has sinned, without recognising that they too are sinners. Like this his words underline his famous declaration: ‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make, you will be judged’ (Mt 7:1-2).

Speaking in this way, Jesus is also addressing those who totally condemn others, with no consideration of the penitence that can well up within the heart of the guilty. And he clearly shows how he treats those who fall: with mercy. When all had gone away from the woman taken in adultery, ‘Two were left,’ as Augustine of Hippo wrote, ‘misery and mercy.’

Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

How can we put this word of life into practice?

Let’s remember, as we come before each brother or sister, that we too are sinners. We have all sinned and, even though it seems to us that we’ve not done anything seriously wrong, we have always to bear in mind that we may not realise the heavy circumstances that caused others fall so low, making them stray from God. How would we have done in their place?

We too, at times, have broken the bond of love that ought to unite us to God; we’ve not been faithful to him.

If Jesus, the only man without sin, didn’t throw the first stone at the adulteress, then neither can we at anyone, whoever it may be.

And so, have mercy for all, react against those impulses that drive us to condemn without pity – we have to know how to forgive and forget. No harbouring in our hearts any lingering judgement or resentment, where anger and hatred can breed and alienate us from our brothers and sisters. See everyone as new.

Having in our hearts, rather than judgement and condemnation, love and mercy for each person, we will help each person begin a new life, we will constantly give courage to start afresh.

We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters.

Since yesterday evening I have found life rather unexpectedly difficult and I am sure this is nothing new. It is simply the fact that I want things to go in a certain way: Smooth, without problems, everybody happy and content. Instead I have the feeling of being a total failure, when nothing seems to go right, worse even, if anything I touch goes wrong. I am fed up waking up with some aches or pains, be it your teeth, or your leg, or your head? I am fed up being governed by pills and timetables in hospitals, Yesterday GP, then dentist, then hospital, then dietician, then etc. I am bored with the low energy levels, because I feel stuck and very limited in what I can do. And even the little I can do by way of proposing new ideas are usually not getting a response. Keeping in touch with people given the amount of time I have got is just as bad. It becomes very difficult to see God’s love in everything! But then I came across this reflection, which is the simple way of looking at life and once again I am amazed at how simple God’s solutions are!

John is writing to the Christian communities he founded at a moment when they were having serious difficulties. Heresies and false doctrines on matters of faith and morals were starting to spread, while the pagan society where Christians lived was tough and hostile to the spirit of the Gospel.

 

To help them the Apostle points out a radical solution: to love the brothers and sisters, to live the law of love they have received from the beginning, which he sees as the summary of all the other commandments.

 

Doing this, they will know what ‘life’ is. They will be led, that is, deeper and deeper into union with God and will experience God-Love. And, having this experience, they will be confirmed in faith and be capable of facing any attack, especially in times of crisis.

 

‘We know...’ The Apostle is referring to a knowledge that comes from experience. It’s like saying: ‘We’ve experienced it, we’ve touched it with our hands.’ It’s the experience that the Christians evangelised by John had at the beginning of their conversion. When we put God’s commandments into practice, in particular the commandment of love for others, we enter the very life of God.

 

But do Christians today have this experience? They certainly know that God’s commandments have a practical purpose. Jesus constantly insists that it’s not enough to listen to the Word of God; it must be lived (see Mt 5:19; 7:21; 7:26).

 

Instead, what’s not clear to most, either because they don’t know about it or because their knowledge is purely theoretical without having had the experience, is the marvellous feature of the Christian life the Apostle puts into light. When we live out the commandment of love, God takes possession of us, and an unmistakeable sign of this is that life, that peace, that joy he gives us to taste already on earth. Then everything is lit up, everything becomes harmonious. No longer is there any separation between faith and life. Faith becomes the force pervading and linking all our actions.

 

This word of life tells us that love for our neighbour is the royal road leading us to God. Since we are all his children, nothing is more important to him than our love for our brothers and sisters. We cannot give him any greater joy than when we love our brothers and sisters.

 

And since love of neighbour brings us union with God, it is an inexhaustible wellspring of inner light, it is a fountain of life, of spiritual fruitfulness, of continual renewal. It prevents the rot, rigidity and slackness that can set in among the Christian people; in a word, it transfers us ‘from death to life’. When, instead, love is lacking, everything withers and dies. Knowing this, we can understand why certain attitudes are so widespread in today’s world: a lack of enthusiasm and ideals, mediocrity, boredom, longing to escape, loss of values, and so on.

 

The brothers and sisters the Apostle refers to here are, above all, the members of the communities we belong to. If it is true that we must love everyone, it is equally true that our love must begin with those who normally live with us, and then reach out to all of humanity. We should think in first place of the members of our family, the people we work with, those who are part of our parish, religious community or association. Our love for our neighbour would not be real and well-ordered if it didn’t start here. Wherever we find ourselves, we are called to build the family of the children of God.

 

This word of life opens up immense horizons. It urges us along the divine adventure of Christian love with its unforeseeable outcomes. Above all it reminds us that in a world like ours, where the theory is of struggle, the survival of the fittest, the shrewdest, the most unscrupulous, and where at times everything seems paralysed by materialism and egoism, the answer we should give is love of neighbour. When we live the commandment of love, in fact, not only is our life energised, but everything around is affected. It’s like a wave of divine warmth, which spreads and grows, penetrating relationships between one person and another, one group and another, and bit by bit transforming society.

 

So, let’s go for it! Brothers and sisters to love in the name of Jesus are something we all have, and that we always have. Let’s be faithful to this love. Let’s help many others be so. We will know in our soul what union with God means. Faith will revive, doubts disappear, no more will we know what boredom is. Life will be full, very, very full.

“Let us help one another to keep in love”

 (…) That Sunday of January 7, 1945 was a day of meeting with Chiara at the “Collegetto”, the seminar of the Capuchin friars. Father Casimiro, who was the director of the Franciscan Third Order, began the meeting with beautiful words.

Then when Chiara started, we girls all huddled in a group around her. She talked about simple things.

She spoke of love. It was as if, in my heart, I was always expecting those words.

'We look at the perpetual motion of the stars in the sky” – she said amongst other things – “if they stop, it would be a disaster”.

So we too must remain in love, never stop.

If we remain in love, we are always living.”(…)

How easy it is to stop loving our neighbour by simply stopping at a different way of thinking, of doing things! We are all different and often we take that difference as a barrier rather than enrichment. The eyes of love will look at everything as a gift. God is love and so everything he does, he creates is love. The person next to me in the present moment is his love for me, the situations I find myself in now in this present moment is his love for me! There isn't anything that is not God’s love for me. And if I find it difficult to believe, I am not alone, if I communicate I am not alone on this road. 

A game of love

“Carry the other’s burdens”

I came across this little reflection:

[...] But what happens if we act like this?

Such was the case, noting the great problems in many parts of the developing world, which were in the clutches of misery, lack of housing, clothing, employment, etc. We understood that we could not expect that these people think, for example, to create a culture or will rise in the spirit of prayer.

First you must make sure that they are freed from the weight of poverty that crushes them, then you can also think about everything that concerns the life of the human person:  education, the whole of a person’s development, etc.

The same thing happens with individuals when we love them by “making ourselves one” putting ourselves into their shoes! First we remove what occupies their heart and which can be a cause of anxiety. Then they sense we will take on what weighs them down, and feel free. [...]

But in order to have such love I have to be completely free, free from myself and my own little world. Yesterday I was asked by a group of confirmation candidates how I know that God loves me and it struck me that with my intellect I might not actually get there to explain this, because it is actually a mystery! And does it matter? Is not the most important thing that God loves me rather than why he loves me? God is love and the nature of his love to give everything of himself that is in order to become like us he gives his divine nature to become human! Visible sign for this is Jesus on the Cross, son of God, God, become man! I am very attracted by the notion of being nothing out of love. Where there is something however small, there can’t be anything else! Where there is me or even a small part of me, God can’t be there!

I wrote to the Bright Lights Core Group, proposing to invite non-catholic speakers for workshops in occasion of the World Youth Day. I think it is important, but now I have to give it to God, forget about it, lose it out of love so that it is not me who wants it but God. It is really a game of love, a game to discover God's plan. And that we can only do together. 

Love your enemies

This really is a powerful thing to say! This really is something that completely overturns our way of thinking, making us switch direction in our lives!

Let's face it. We all have some enemies of one kind or another. My enemy may be next door, in that unpleasant, meddlesome woman I try to avoid meeting in the lift... My enemy could be that relative who mistreated my father thirty years ago and who I've not spoken to since... It could be that classmate you've refused to look at ever since he got you into trouble with the teacher... It could be the girlfriend who dropped you to go out with someone else... It could be the salesman who cheated you... Our enemies are those in politics who don't see things as we do.... Just as there are those, and they always exist, who see the clergy as enemies and hate the Church.

Well then, all of these, and many, many others we call enemies, are to be loved.

Loved?

Yes. They are to be loved! And don't think it's enough merely to change the feeling of hatred into something kinder. We have to do much more than that.

Listen to what Jesus says: 

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 

Do you see? Jesus wants us to overcome evil with good. He wants a love that is turned into action.

We find ourselves asking: why does Jesus give such a command?

The fact is he wants to model our conduct on that of God, his Father, who 'makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous'. (Matt. 5:45)

This is the point. We are not alone in the world: we have a Father and we should be like him. Not only this, but God has the right to make such a demand because while we were his enemies, while we were still in darkness, he first loved us by sending us his Son who died in such a terrible way for each one of us.

Elizabeth, a young girl from Florence, was climbing the steps of a church to go to Mass when a group of youngsters her own age started to make fun of her! It really upset her. She wanted to react, but instead she smiled, went into church and prayed very much for them. As she was leaving, they came up and asked her why she had behaved like that. She explained that she was a Christian and so she had to love all the time. She said this with great conviction. Her witness bore fruit. When she got to church next Sunday the very same group was sitting attentively in the first pew.

This is how children take God's word seriously. This is why they are big in his eyes.

Perhaps we too should take steps to remedy certain situations in our own lives, all the more so since we will be judged by the way we judge others. We are the ones who give God the measure by which he will measure us. (See Matt. 7:2) Don't we often pray, 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us'? So let's love our enemies! Only by doing this can we heal disunity, break down barriers and build the Christian community.

Is it difficult? Painful? Does the mere thought of it keep us awake at night? Take courage. It is not the end of the world after all. It takes just a little effort on our part, and then God will do the remaining ninety-nine percent... and in our hearts there will be a flood of joy.                                                                                                                                                                    

“Have an heroic love”

How should our love be so that it is in accordance with what Jesus demands from us?

We know a love that has death as a measure: to be willing to die for the other, for each neighbour.

A heroic love then: nothing less.

This is love: "... as I have loved you."

It is in this kind of love, conceived and lived in this way,

that we find a way to sanctify us in life.

It sounds dramatic and often we are not asked to give our lives every time, but it is the measure of loving my neighbour! Why? Because in every neighbour I can see Jesus, because every person that passes me by in the present moment is a gift for me, an expression of God’s love for me! If I want to love my neighbour the way God loves me, I have to be willing to give my life as he gave his life on the cross! 

Give joy and rejoice always

“Give joy”

I came across this reflection by Chiara Lubich, which struck me today:

                                                                                                      

These words of encouragement are found at the end of the first letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5:16).. The invitation to be joyful often recurs in St. Paul's letters. It is one of the themes of his preaching. When writing to the Philippians he says: 'Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice' (Phil. 4:4).

There is no doubt that for St. Paul joy is one of the most beautiful expressions of Christian life. One could say it is the most distinctive mark of the Christian life and that it is also the most effective means to witness it. Nothing impresses and attracts people more than someone who is truly joyful.

At first view what is striking is the form of invitation or rather command that the Apostle uses. We might ask, 'can you command someone to be joyful?' Besides we know that life is full of problems and worries, which don't exactly help us to be always joyful. You can encourage a person to accept what happens in good spirit... but joy is something different. Joy is a feeling that springs spontaneously from the soul.

Yet for St. Paul there is reason we should always be joyful, despite all the difficulties. It is a consequence of taking the Christian life seriously. Through this life Jesus lives fully within us and with him we are bound to be joyful.

Jesus is the source of true joy, because he gives meaning to our life; he guides us with his light, frees us from every fear both regarding the past and also what is still to come; Jesus gives us the strength to overcome all the difficulties, temptations and trials that we may meet.

There is a secret to always being joyful. It is to concentrate on Jesus, so that he may always shine out on us.

We know the path to take. Jesus lives in us if we try to put his word into practice, in particular if we love him in each brother and sister, ready to give our life for each person, as he did.

If then our brother and sister loves Jesus in us, then our joy will be full (cf. Jn. 15, 11) because Jesus will shine in our midst too.